Families plead for US reporters' release in N. Korea

[June 01, 2009]  SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- U.S. journalist Laura Ling, jailed for three months in one of the world's most isolated nations, wrote to her family that she "cried so much" her first few days after being arrested by North Korean border guards.

"Now, I cry less. I try very hard to think about positive things, but sometimes it is hard too," the 32-year-old Californian wrote in a letter from Pyongyang relayed to her family two weeks ago.

Ling and colleague Euna Lee -- reporters for San Francisco-based Current TV, a media venture started by former Vice President Al Gore -- stand trial Thursday in North Korea's highest court, accused of entering the country illegally and engaging in "hostile acts." U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called the charges baseless.

Their trial, on charges that could land them in one of North Korea's notoriously grim labor camps, comes at a sensitive time in the diplomatic scramble to rein in an increasingly belligerent Pyongyang.

In the past two months, North Korea has launched a long-range rocket and conducted an underground nuclear test in defiance of the U.N. Security Council. The North also abandoned international disarmament negotiations and may have restarted its plutonium reprocessing plant. On Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the regime appears to be preparing a long-range missile.

Analysts say North Korea could use the women as bargaining chips in any negotiations with Washington and its allies.

"Having two journalists detained in the North leaves the U.S. very little maneuvering room since Washington now has to take the women's safety into account," said Yoon Deok-min, a professor at South Korea's state-run Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security.

The U.S. and North Korea, which fought on opposite sides of the bitter three-year Korean War in the early 1950s, do not have diplomatic relations. Washington also has 28,500 troops in South Korea to help monitor the cease-fire laid out in a truce signed in 1953.

Reclusive North Korea, which has few allies and has seen South Korean aid dry up since President Lee Myung-bak took office last year, is desperate to normalize ties with the U.S., analysts said.

Analyst Paik Hak-soon called North Korea's nuclear test a ploy to put "maximum pressure" on President Barack Obama to cave into Pyongyang's desire for direct talks.

Thursday's trial could provide a diplomatic opening for such talks, Paik said. "Had it not been for the journalists, sending a high-level envoy for direct talks with Pyongyang could create the impression the U.S. is yielding to North Korea's provocations."

Gore himself may head to North Korea to lobby for the reporters' release, TBS television in Tokyo said Saturday, citing unnamed sources. Messages left with a Gore spokeswoman went unanswered, and Current TV has refused to comment.

The journalists were arrested at the northeastern border with China on March 17. Activists who helped organize their trip say they had been reporting on North Korean women and children who fled to China for an uncertain life as refugees.

Meanwhile, the journalists' families began speaking out. They are set to appear Monday on NBC's "Today" show and CNN's "Larry King Live."

"We have been holding our breath every day as we've watched the political situation on the Korean Peninsula grow increasingly tense," the families said in a statement Sunday. "Our loved ones sit in the midst of it. We desperately urge the governments of the United States and North Korea to keep our issue separate from the larger geopolitical standoff."

On the day the trial is set to begin, candlelight vigils will be held across the U.S.

"To say that this has been stressful would be to grossly understate how hard this has been. Our families have been very quiet because of the extreme sensitivity of the situation, but given the fact that our girls are in the midst of a global nuclear standoff, we cannot wait any longer," sister Lisa Ling, a TV journalist who herself reported in North Korea in 2005, wrote in a message posted to a Facebook page for Ling and Lee.

The families said they were "gravely concerned," noting that Lee has a 4-year-old child and that Ling was being treated for an ulcer before her trip to China.

"In our limited communication with her, we fear it has become more serious since her detainment and requires immediate medical attention," their statement said.

Lee and Ling are journalists "simply doing their job," the families said. "We can say with absolute certainty that when the girls left U.S. soil, they never intended to set foot onto North Korean territory. If at any point a transgression occurred, we sincerely apologize on their behalf."

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On the Net:

Facebook page for Lee and Ling:
http://www.facebook.com/
group.php?gid60755553149

Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?vxaxXdKcA5tM

[Associated Press; By JEAN H. LEE]

Associated Press writer Kwang-tae Kim contributed to this report.

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